Turkish Daily News - Difficult days ahead

Turkish Daily News - Difficult days ahead


Difficult days ahead
Monday, December 26, 2005
TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI Yusuf KANLI
The first time was spectacular. You will remember a few years ago, in February of 2001, to be precise, there was a prime minister in office who was old, fragile, ill and surrounded by political fortune-hunters who in public spared no effort to demonstrate their loyalty to their incumbent leader but who behind closed doors were engaged in battles of succession.
The country was just emerging from a mini-crisis in November, which, according to some adversaries, was an indicator of a larger crisis to come if the poor governance of the country persisted and the aged leader failed to accept calls to step down and leave his post as party and government leader to one of his confidants. Though the premier was at times confused as to whether he had only his socks on or his shoes as well and managed to greet the same guest two or three times during the course of a 30-minute reception, the three-way coalition government of the time was adamant that there was no need to refresh the national will -- that is, go to early elections -- stressing that there was harmony in the Cabinet and that the county was well governed.
Still, there were signs presaging that one day angry shop owners would throw their empty cash registers on the sidewalk in front of the Prime Ministry in protest -- a development that, when it in fact occurred, forced Ankara to establish a primitive version of today's “Green Zone” in Baghdad around the Prime Ministry, blocking all roads and cutting off any chance of the ageing premier seeing the desperate situation into which he had put the Turks with his poor governance. Some of the important infrastructure of the European Union reforms was established at that time, but many reforms, most notably those related to decreasing the participation of the military in the country's policy-making mechanisms, had yet to be legislated. For example, the National Security Council (MGK) was still headed by a general and the government was still required by law to give priority to and implement suggestions made by the military-dominated body.
In such an atmosphere, the council met one a cold February day at the Çankaya Presidential Palace for its routine, then-monthly meeting, and during the gathering the president and the prime minister decided all of a sudden to play-ping pong with a copy of the Constitution, vividly demonstrating their disagreement over some crucial matters pertaining to the separation of powers.
Emerging from that meeting, the elderly prime minister, in an angry and shaking voice, proclaimed that there was a “state crisis” in the country. What that meant nobody knew, but the markets went wild and the country plunged into the worst economic-financial crisis of its republican history, devouring at least half of the wealth of the Turks without discriminating between rich or poor. The people's desperation was so profound that despite its flat objection to an early election, the three-way government managed to stay in office -- with the premier for the most part in bed either in hospital or at his residence -- until November 2002, when it faced a humiliating electoral defeat and was rejected en masse from the Turkish legislature.

TÜSİAD standoff:
Four years later the country experienced yet another crisis over a copy of the Constitution. The premier, waving the document and reading some of its articles, “ordered” prosecutors to investigate some top businessmen, the president of the Higher Education Council (YÖK) and the main opposition leader on grounds that they had expressed opinions in such a way as to influence an ongoing trial, that of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Rector Yücel Aşkın.
Markets failed to go wild nor was Turkey plunged into a serious financial crisis, although the country's European allies panicked, having perceived the developments as indications that the Turkish government was backing away from it road to the EU. After intense negotiations between the government and those top businessmen from late Friday to late Saturday night, both sides conceded the reality that further aggravating the situation with statements and counterstatements would do no good to anyone, and they agreed to refrain from adding further fuel to the fire in order to let it die down.
The second major controversy over the Constitution thus appears to have been resolved; however, the latest development should be taken as an indication of the difficult days in store for the new year, during which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government will have to make some very difficult decisions, with Cyprus and the ports and airports issue as well as the anticipated buildup of pressure from Europe for a reconsideration of controversial articles in the new penal code topping the list.
After all, in a Turkey on its way to EU accession, putting intellectuals, academics and journalists behind bars -- particularly those from the country's minorities -- can only amount shooting ourselves in the foot, particularly in view of the growing Turkey skepticism within the European club.
We have to realize that when we put Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink, Zülküf Kışanak and others on trial, we are indeed putting Turkey on trial.
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